Putin appoints Andrei Vorobyov acting governor of Moscow Region

November 08, 16:15UTC+3“This is a vast and no easy region, indeed, but I am ready to take the job,” Vorobyov said

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MOSCOW, November 8 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Andrei Vorobyov, to take the post of the Moscow Region’s acting governor.

“Each person surely finds parliamentary activities, let alone the position of the largest faction’s leader as very important, but I would like to offer you a different type of job, an executive post. That of the acting governor of the Moscow Region,” Putin said.

Vorobyov accepted.

“This is a vast and no easy region, indeed, but I am ready to take the job,” he said.

Vorobyov believes that the team of his predecessor has drafted a clear action plan.

“We shall now be working on it,” he promised.

“This is a very important region,” Putin said. “Science, industry and culture – all that is developed in the best way, but the problems are many, too – financial, social and other. There is vast, very important work ahead. Don’t forget, you are going there with one task – to serve the people,” Putin said.

After Tuesday’s appointment of Sergei Shoigu to the post of Russia’s Defense Minister presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov explained that the Moscow Region’s acting governor would be appointed in the near future.

“It will be the person who will be performing the governor’s duties until the next unified election day, that is for nearly a year,” Peskov said, adding that the acting governor would apparently participate in the election.

Central Election Commission secretary Nikolai Konkin has confirmed to Itar-Tass the Moscow Region’s new governor is to be elected on September 8, 2013.

Andrei Vorobyov is 42. Previously he held a position at the Russian government’s staff as an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shoigu. Also, he was a Federation Council member. And in 2003 he became a State Duma member.